The Color Maroon
by Spookysauce
Summary: ...One-Shot, Royai... His eyes weren't a dark red, were they? "I need to stop doing that." "Doing what, sir?" "Nothing."


**I freaking love Royai. I have no idea why. And I needed this idea off my chest. Also, thanks for the title, Kaela! **

**Also, a pointless warning: there's freaking fluff. For goodness sake, it's a Royai fan fiction. Give it a rest.**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its affiliates.**_

_**

* * *

**_

For some odd reason, whenever Riza Hawkeye thought of the word "mustang," she thought of the color maroon.

She had absolutely no idea why, in all actuality. Well, they both started with "m" and had the same amount of letters - right? M-U-S-T-A-N-G is seven, M-A-R-O-O-N is... six? - no they didn't. Why did she think of the color _maroon_, of all things?

Roy's eye color wasn't a dark red, was it? She glanced over at the man, staring blandly at the gigantic stack of paperwork that was due the week before that Riza knew she'd have to help him with in the long run, never mind that he hadn't realized that three-fourths of the total paperwork she did was for him at her home in her spare time, and squinted her eyes in his general direction.

Roy seemed to notice her staring intently at him and glanced back at her curiously. "Hawkeye, what's with the look?" He creased his eyebrows at her expression. "Is there something wrong with my face? Did half of it get shot off and I haven't noticed yet?"

(Roy Mustang did not realize the irony in his joking statement, Riza would note at a later date.)

"It's nothing, Colonel," Riza stated in her business-like manner, turning away from her commanding officer with his eyebrows still nudged together in confusion. "I was just wondering the exact color of your eyes."

Roy glanced at her with arched eyebrows this time. "Oh? And why is this?" Riza took a peek at Roy, whose hand rested lazily on his face, propping him upwards in a relaxed position, like the classic high school student asleep in history class. Hawkeye took note that Colonel Roy Mustang _was_ the classic high school student asleep in history class, given how many times she reminded him of which historical figure was which, what battles took place when, et cetera.

"No reason, sir," Riza proclaimed in something above a whisper, turning to the papers in her smaller stack. Roy sighed, continuing to stare down the stack of paperwork before him. "And those forms aren't going to fill themselves out, you know."

"Half of the time, the Führer mentions a piece of paperwork I don't even remember. It's kind of irritating," he said blandly, his head sinking onto his desk with a loud thud. Riza smiled in accomplishment; at least her part of the work was successful, despite putting her colonel in awkward positions when addressing the position he wanted to be his one day. "That's something I'm cutting down on when I become Führer: paperwork. I can't be the only man who hates this, right?"

It was kind of weird when Colonel Mustang brought up subjects she had been thinking of not seconds before, but Hawkeye thought nothing else of it. "Then how are you going to document what happens where, Colonel?" Riza asked him, Roy's face turning into horrific shock at the moment the words exited her lips. He blushed absentmindedly. Oh, what he'd _do _for those _lips_…

"I need to stop doing that."

"Doing what, sir?"

"Nothing." Roy sat up in full attention with a slight blush still staining his face, grabbing the top of the stack and scanned it quickly, placing his sloppy signature where needed. Riza sighed lightly, shaking her head at her colonel's antics before turning back to her own papers to fill out.

A few moments of silence fell between them - they were the only two in the office at this dreaded time of night, anyway - when Roy's voice seemed to echo through the room: "They're dark blue."

Riza glanced at him awkwardly, curiosity gracing her eyes when she glanced over to Roy, whose eyes glanced over to her while filling out some other form Riza was certain he was only half paying attention to. "Excuse me?" Riza sounded, political sounding in all her official seriousness. Roy frowned lightly.

"My eyes," Roy reminded her, turning back to the paperwork before him. "They're dark blue." Riza sounded in approving mutter, eyes scanning over one of her own forms, not noticing Roy's eyes lingering over her. His eyebrows creased a second time within the few moments they had between them. "So why is your stack of files so high, Lieutenant Hawkeye? You're usually up-to-date about proceedings like this, so it's rather unusual…"

Riza smiled, still staring down at her files, confusing Mustang beyond words. His statement had absolutely nothing to do with smiling, and she's smiling. Goodness gracious, Hawkeye. "I've just been busy in recent weeks. That's all, Colonel." Something in her voice unnerved him and he smiled back at her, continuing his paperwork which he knew would only pile further up if he didn't continue.

"What color did you think they were, Hawkeye?" Roy asked in curiosity, knowing full well of what tended to kill the cat. Riza shifted oddly in her seat, crossing her legs under her desk - which didn't go unnoticed by Roy, who tried not to grin - and creasing her eyebrows instead of Roy creasing his, staring intently at the stack of papers in front of her.

"I… thought they were dark red, sir," she told him honestly, an amused look crossing her colonel's face, begging her for an example, "like magenta, burgundy, maroon."

Roy's eyes - dark blue eyes, Riza reminded herself absentmindedly - lit up. "Maroon?" Roy repeated like an excited child, smiling widely. Riza nodded, eyes slightly glaring at Roy in her personal interest. "That's kind of funny, really. Maroon's one of my favorite colors."

A few days later, Hawkeye appeared a few hours earlier than - what she thought - everyone else to Central, only to be greeted with Colonel Roy Mustang already uncharacteristically going through his share of paperwork, staring down the work before him with fury and ease. "Colonel? Did something happen last night to make you so upbeat?"

Roy glanced up at Riza with a grin plastered to his face, a pen in his grasp as he scribbled down his sloppy signature. "Nothing at all, Lieutenant Hawkeye! Just had my cup of coffee and a bright day to rain down upon!" Riza blinked in confusion, taking off the scarf around her neck.

"Sir, it's four in the morning. The sun hasn't risen yet. It's the dead of winter," she stated with all obviousness, shrugging off her jacket in steady silence and placing it behind her chair. She glanced at her desk for a moment, looking down and then turning her head back upwards, gasping silently:

A bouquet of maroon roses were sitting in the center of her neat and organized desk, resting elegantly in a crystal vase.

She touched a petal curiously, looking at the roses as if they were the most beautiful thing in the world. The furiousness in Mustang's eyes softened as he watched Riza silently, caught up in one of her innocently womanly moments, and Roy thought this was the most beautiful she ever was, not catching the small smile gracing his lips as he silently pursued her. Her mouth was slightly agape as she sat down, eyes never leaving the roses, and then her lips curved into a genuine smile.

Roy silently stood from his seat and strode towards her desk, not that he thought anything would wake Riza from her awed trance the roses had placed her in. "I thought you might like them," he said casually, traces of joy and love in his voice that he promised himself Riza would never catch. She glanced up at him, snapping herself out of her state as her head craned to look at her colonel, who was sitting on the corner of her desk.

"You bought these for me?" she asked as if a small child, and Roy couldn't help but to smile brightly, nodding before Riza closed her eyes lightly. "I'm not dreaming, right? Roy Mustang actually bought someone flowers?"

He couldn't stop a grin from growing on his face. "No, you're not dreaming. I'm not cheap, you know. Just a bit frugal." At this Riza opened her eyes and giggled lightly, in a sort of euphoria that Roy only wished could last forever. He turned his head towards the back wall so as to not meet her awkward glance when he would have it. "I heard somewhere that maroon was your favorite color too, so I thought you might like them. It's too bland in this place without them anyway, and your desk happens to coordinate with the awful color scheme in this place for that color to fit."

He was just making up excuses to buy her something that would make her smile, she knew, but she let Roy slide for this one time for his sake. "Well, thank you, sir. I'll take care of them as best as I can." And she genuinely smiled at him before turning her gaze to the stack of paperwork she had to do. Roy cringed somewhere in the back of his head, cursing the rules against them, wishing he could just knock over those expensive freaking flowers and break the vase and ruin all her work for the day and just _kiss her senseless and throw everything off her desk and unbutton their everything and --_

"I need to stop doing that."

"Doing what, sir?"

"Nothing," he stated, almost robotically jumping off of his place on her desk and back to his own, anger throwing off his aura at the thought of the things they could be doing other than paperwork for a man he wished to replace. Riza smiled shyly at her coworker, almost knowingly, which only slightly scared Roy since he never told anyone his thoughts about her - except maybe Black Hayate, but he highly doubted the dog could tell his owner that he cared for her as much as he shouldn't, let alone speak in human tongue - but figured she was smiling for a separate reason.

And she was, of course. After all, whenever she thought of "mustang," she thought of "maroon." What better way was there, to recall her favorite color when she thought of her favorite person?


End file.
